Some Thoughts On Our Future Home

My feelings for LA have always been complicated. I visited for the first time with my family during the summer before eighth grade. We drove down the coast, and while I loved San Fran and San Diego, LA seemed too big, too rich to take seriously.

I didn't go back until my junior year of college to visit a friend who'd just moved out there. My perception was downgraded a few notches. It was too crazy, too vapid. Nothing I could handle, I figured.

Then about five years later I went back, this time armed with a few years of living in New York under my belt. To be honest, I was already searching for a way to escape the city, and LA felt like seeing in Technicolor for the first time. But even then, I knew it wasn't really an option at the time - something about it didn't feel right.

So here I am, two years later, fresh off a house hunting trip to the city of angels, and finally ready to make that step out West. Now I know it's the right time. Life can be so weird.

While it was definitely a mark in the crazy category to book the trip so close to leaving Berlin and before we could even legitimately look for a place to live, it was the best idea we've had in a long time.

This way we could get a real perspective, not a "Oh crap we're going to be homeless, just pick a place" time crunch. No, instead we got to look at different areas, view sample properties in our price range, and enjoy a few days getting to know our future home.

It was just what we needed. Sure, hitting two hour traffic from the airport to the hotel following an 11 hour flight wasn't exactly what we needed, but it did serve as a constant reminder that commute times are never a given.

We learned some other good lessons like how from the area we'll probably be living in (Calabasas, yes home to the Real Housewives of Kardashianville) is only a 20 minute drive to the Malibu beaches. And how there are lots of Chipotles and Targets everywhere (as learned by our realtor, I'm pretty easy to please).

We might have had a few mini-freak outs - mostly related to not living "in the city" considering that's what we're both used to - but then we did something adult: We looked at it logically. Spiros' job is farther north. Is it a good idea for him to have to commute almost four hours daily? No. Plus housing gets exponentially more expensive the closer in you get. Does it make sense to spend an insane amount of money on a one-bedroom apartment when we could get a house (and a yard)? Probably not.

So there you have it. We acted like quasi-adults, and we feel good about it! We are ready to be settled. And I feel so old and mature just typing this.

PS Chateau Marmont was celebrity-less, but as imagined, still at full douche capacity. And the food was actually pretty good.